Taking pics of your bits and sending them to someone else is never a good idea. Whether it’s to your boyfriend or girlfriend or someone you’ve met online, a quick snap can have long term consequences.

Please watch our two videos below, developed in consultation with young people in Brighton.

The first highlights the risks of taking nude selfies:

The second highlights the risks of sharing nude selfies:

While there may be people who send nude selfies and who don’t suffer negative consequences, it’s risky and can leave you vulnerable to:

o Blackmail

Someone may threaten to share the pictures with family and friends unless money or more images are sent. This can lead to Child Sexual Exploitation. More about this here.

o Bullying

If images are shared with friends or in school, bullying may happen.

o Unwanted attention

Images posted online can attract the attention of sex offenders, who know how to search for, collect and modify images.

o Emotional distress

Those who have sent them can feel embarrassed and humiliated, or worse self harm or suicide.

"It just doesnt really feel very nice afterwards. You think it's going to be a positive experience but then it really turns out to be a negative." - 15 year old

"I know that once you've posted an image online you don't really have ownership over it anymore." - 19 year old

If you don’t know what to send back to a request for a nude selfie, you can download an app called Zipit.

Zipit is Childline's first ever app, available for Android and Blackberry smartphones. It gives advice on what to do if someone is trying to get you to send naked images of yourself or if you need to keep a flirty situation in control. If anything like this gets out of control or worries you when interacting online the best thing is to tell someone you trust as soon as you can.

If you’re thinking about sending a nude selfie, or have sent one and don’t know what to do read on..

Have you sent a nude selfie?

Don't panic - there are things you can do.

Remember - if you have shared something you regret, or you’re being bullied because of it, it’s never too late to get help. There are many things you can do to improve the situation.

• Tell someone you trust

You might be worried about talking to an adult but they are likely to be more understanding than you think. Talk to someone you trust like a parent, carer or a teacher. Talking about a problem can be the first step to solving it.

• Speak to ChildLine

If you don't want to talk to someone you know you can call ChildLine, the free helpline for young people. You can contact ChildLine about anything, no problem is too big or too small.

• Report the image

If an image has been shared on social networks or other sites you can report the image to sites where it's been shared (so if you shared it on Snapchat report it to Snapchat, or if on WhatsApp report it to WhatsApp for example). Just Google the name of the site along with ‘report image.’

If the site doesn't have any way to report the image you can call ChildLine and they will report it to the Internet Watch Foundation who can get the image taken down.

• Are you being threatened?

If you shared a naked pic or video and someone is threatening you or you shared it because someone pressured or forced you, it’s important to seek help.

Don't give in to threats or send any more pictures. Walk away and tell an adult you trust or report it to us (by emailing 101@sussex.pnn.police.uk or ringing 101).

If you think you are in immediate danger call us on 999.

You can also contact CEOP, the Child Sexual Exploitation & Online Protection Centre.

The most important thing to remember is that there are people out there to help you.